IV 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 688 

Supporting the role of the United States in ensuring children in poor countries 

have access to vaccines and immunization through the GAVI Alliance. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 25, 2014 

Ms. MCCOLLUM (for herself, Mr. REICHERT, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. CRENSHAW, 

Ms. BASS, Mr. DIAZ-BALART, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. FITZPATRICK, 

Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. MCCAUL, Ms. ESTY, Mr. MCHENRY, Ms. 

SPEIER, Mr. ROSS, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. HALL, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. 

SCHOCK, and Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD) submitted the following resolution; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting the role of the United States in ensuring children 

in poor countries have access to vaccines and immunization through the GAVI Alliance. 

Whereas prior to 2000, the distribution of and the resources 

for vaccines for children in the developing world were declining, immunization rates were stagnant or decreasing 

and nearly 30,000,000 children born in the developing 

world each year were not fully immunized; 

Whereas prior to 2000, it was common for new life-saving 

vaccines to take up to 15 years to be introduced in the 

world’s poorest countries; 


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Whereas access to routine immunization and vaccines protect 

children from deadly but preventable disease and contribute to national economic growth and poverty reduction by ensuring people live longer, healthier, and more 

productive lives; 

Whereas in 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 

United States, the United Nations Children’s Emergency 

Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, the 

World Bank, bilateral partners, developing countries, the 

private sector, including the vaccine industry, civil society, and other partners joined forces to create a publicprivate partnership called the Global Fund for Children’s 

Vaccine (now the GAVI Alliance) in order to expand access to new and underused vaccines and support the introduction and scale-up of these vaccines into routine immunization systems in the world’s poorest countries; 

Whereas partnership and sustainability are at the core of the 

GAVI Alliance model by requiring GAVI-eligible countries 

to contribute financing to some portion of their vaccine 

costs and directly invest in immunizing their children; 

Whereas by 2012, more than 65 developing countries working 

with the GAVI Alliance were co-financing new and 

underused vaccines funded by the GAVI Alliance and 

more than 20 countries are projected to graduate between 2016 and 2020, moving toward fully funding their 

national immunization programs; 

Whereas the GAVI Alliance has transformed the market for 

vaccines by pooling demand from developing countries 

matched with secure, predictable financing to make vaccines more affordable and supply more reliable, and encouraging research and development of new vaccines; 


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Whereas as a result, the GAVI Alliance has played a critical 

role in increasing the number of global vaccine manufacturers selling to the world’s poorest countries from 5 in 

2001 to 13 in 2014; 

Whereas the price for the pneumococcal vaccine, which prevents pneumonia, is now more than 90 percent lower for 

GAVI-eligible countries, and the price of rotavirus vaccines, which prevents diarrhea, is 67 percent lower in 

GAVI-eligible countries; 

Whereas with innovative financing mechanisms like the Advance Market Commitment and International Finance 

Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), the GAVI Alliance 

ensures that appropriate and affordable vaccines are 

available throughout the developing world; 

Whereas the GAVI Alliance supports the financing and delivery of 11 vaccines, including those against pneumococcal 

disease and rotavirus, the leading vaccine-preventable 

causes of pneumonia and diarrhea, which kill more children under the age of 5 than any other disease; 

Whereas the GAVI Alliance collaborates closely with the 

Global Polio Eradication Initiative on the final push to 

end polio, strengthening and bringing the inactivated 

polio vaccine into routine immunization programs; 

Whereas strong immunization systems are critical to ensuring 

continuous coverage and sustainability of polio, new and 

routine immunization programs in implementing countries; 

Whereas the GAVI Alliance supports the strengthening of 

health systems and local civil society organizations to ensure effective immunization and health services; 


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Whereas since 2000, with support from the United States, 

the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the 

World Health Organization, the World Bank, implementing countries, donor governments, the private sector, 

and other donors and partners, the GAVI Alliance has 

supported country-led vaccine roll outs in 77 countries to 

support the immunization of an additional 440,000,000 

children and will avert an estimated 6,000,000 deaths in 

the world’s poorest countries; 

Whereas in 2013, the GAVI Alliance was ranked the second 

most transparent aid program in the Aid Transparency 

Index, behind only the Millennium Challenge Corporation; 

Whereas even with significant contributions by the GAVI Alliance, only a small percentage of young children worldwide receive all 11 life-saving vaccines universally recommended by the World Health Organization; 

Whereas vaccines are widely regarded as one of the ‘‘best 

buys’’ in global health and recognized as one of the most 

efficient, cost-effective, and successful health initiatives in 

history; 

Whereas in 2012, leading experts on health economics ranked 

childhood immunization as 1 of the 3 most cost-effective 

solutions to advance global health; 

Whereas as one of the initial 6 donors, the United States has 

been an important supporter of the GAVI Alliance and 

through the generosity of the people of the United States 

has contributed almost $1,200,000,000 for the acquisition of life saving vaccines; 

Whereas at the GAVI Alliance’s first pledging conference in 

June 2011, the United States increased its support and 


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pledged $450,000,000 for fiscal years 2012 through 2014 

to increase access to new and underused vaccines, including pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines; 

Whereas in addition to this 3-year pledge, the United States 

contributed an additional $90,000,000 to the GAVI Alliance in fiscal year 2011; 

Whereas United States investment in the GAVI Alliance complements and enhances the effectiveness of other bilateral 

and multilateral United States investments in global 

health, particularly in child survival; 

Whereas the GAVI Alliance is committed to working with 

partners, including United States bilateral programs run 

by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (CDC), to ensure children in developing nations have access to vaccines and immunizations; 

Whereas in June 2012, the United States Government, together with the Governments of Ethiopia and India as 

well as UNICEF, mobilized the world around the goal of 

ending preventable child deaths by 2035; 

Whereas access to immunizations is a key component of 

reaching that goal; 

Whereas in May 2014, at the World Economic Forum meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, African leaders pledged to increase 

investment in their countries’ immunization programs by 

endorsing the Immunise Africa 2020 leaders declaration; 

Whereas, on May 20, 2014, the GAVI Alliance called on donors to support an ambitious plan to immunize an additional 300,000,000 children against potentially fatal diseases and save an additional 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 lives 

between 2016 and 2020; 


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Whereas the GAVI Alliance needs donors to invest an additional $7,500,000,000 to support developing countries’ 

immunization programs from 2016 to 2020; 

Whereas at the same time, implementing countries are expected to co-finance an additional $1,200,000,000, an increase from almost $500,000,000 in 2011 through 2015; 

and 

Whereas with this support from donors and the global vaccine 

community, the GAVI Alliance can reach its 

1,000,000,000th child with critical vaccines by the early 

2020s, nearly double the number of lives saved since its 

founding and unlock between $80,000,000,000 to 

$100,000,000,000 in economic benefits through health 

care savings and productivity gains: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) commends the GAVI Alliance, the Bill and 

3 Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Chil4 dren’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the World 

5 Health Organization, the World Bank, civil society, 

6 the private sector, faith-based organizations, the 

7 international community, and implementing coun8 tries on the progress that has been made on reduc9 ing child mortality through the increased availability 

10 and distribution of vaccines; 

11 (2) affirms the United States continued support 

12 for the purchase of vaccines for poor countries 

13 through the GAVI Alliance as a cost-effective, effi14 cient means to reduce child mortality and as a critVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:58 Jul 26, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR688.IH HR688

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1 ical component of meeting the United States goal to 

2 end preventable maternal and child deaths; 

3 (3) supports the ideals and goals of the GAVI 

4 Alliance— 

5 (A) accelerate equitable uptake and cov6 erage of vaccines; 

7 (B) improve the effectiveness and effi8 ciency of immunization delivery; 

9 (C) improve sustainability of national im10 munization programs; and 

11 (D) shape markets for vaccines and other 

12 immunization products; 

13 (4) upholds that the United States is a critical 

14 donor in its work with other donors to perform dip15 lomatic outreach in seeking additional funding for 

16 the GAVI Alliance in order to leverage its commit17 ment; 

18 (5) recognizes that the United States, in addi19 tion to being an important donor, is a critical tech20 nical partner to the GAVI Alliance and the impact 

21 of United States investments to the GAVI Alliance 

22 is leveraged by providing direct technical assistance 

23 to implementing countries and global bodies; 

24 (6) encourages the continued use of United 

25 States Agency for International Development 


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1 (USAID) maternal and child health and Centers for 

2 Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) global immu3 nization resources to strengthen local public health 

4 capacity to introduce and sustain new and underuti5 lized vaccines, that are supported by the GAVI Alli6 ance, through routine immunization systems; and 

7 (7) encourages continued commitment and in8 vestment by the United States Government and 

9 international donors, through the GAVI Alliance, to 

10 the global effort to ensure that children in devel11 oping nations have access to vaccines and immuniza12 tions. 

Æ 


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